Davis’ own poll shows him being shellacked by Emanuel and Alexi considering mayoral run
Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * You’ve undoubtedly read by now that a group of African-American leaders has chosen Congressman Danny Davis to be their standard-bearer in the mayor’s race. But a poll commissioned by Davis himself, which for some reason he decided to circulate not long ago, actually shows he will have a very rough time against Rahm Emanuel if Davis manages to make it into the runoff. From Congressman Davis’ pollster…
If Rahm Emanuel gets 45 percent of the black vote against Davis in Davis’ own poll, then you have to wonder what he and that committee is thinking. * And this has been going around for days. I’m not sure yet whether the labor poll actually exists, but there are some aldermen who cannot handle the idea of Rahm Emanuel for mayor and some of them are now turning to a guy who got almost 80 percent of the Chicago vote last week…
Thoughts?
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Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center MYTHBUSTERS
Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department [The following is a paid advertisement.] Part 1, Electric Rates. Myth: Taylorville will put an “enormous economic burden” on consumers Fact: The Clean Coal Portfolio Standard caps residential rate increases at 2.015%, or $1.67/month, according to the ICC. Fact: Between now and 2015, the project will invest billions in Illinois, employ nearly 2,500 construction workers and purchase supplies from all corners of the state. The cost to ratepayers between now and 2015? ZERO. NOTHING. ZILCH. Myth: Taylorville will dramatically increase electric rates for large business customers Fact: Big business customers currently pay 40.5% less for electricity than residential and small business consumers. Even under their worst case scenario, large customers would still pay 37.1% less. ![]() Myth: Illinois has plenty of electricity. No new plants are needed. Fact: As Crain’s and others have reported, environmental regulations are expected to force 25-40% of Illinois coal plants to shut down by 2020. Since Illinois still relies on coal for half of our electricity, less supply and more demand means higher electric rates if cleaner supplies of reliable electricity, like Taylorville, are not built. And who benefits from that? SAY YES TO TENASKA’S TAYLORVILLE ENERGY CENTER! Learn the facts. For more information, visit cleancoalillinois.com
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Question of the day
Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * From Gallup…
Gallup used a 1 through 5 rating system, where “1″ meant it is more important for political leaders to “compromise in order to get things done,” while “5″ meant it is more important for political leaders to “stick to their beliefs even if little gets done.” * The Question: Based on that 1-5 rating system, where do you stand? Explain.
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Time to face reality
Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Gov. Pat Quinn should listen to Mayor Daley…
Quinn’s response? Not heartening…
Quinn’s tax increase alone will barely make a dent in the state’s deficit, so he’s going to have to cut anyway. He might as well come up with at least a partial plan now. Earlier this week, all he could point to was eliminating the legislative scholarship plan. Yeah. That’ll help pass this tax hike. Watch… A win is a win and Quinn won the election. But that doesn’t make him dictator. He can’t pass his tax hike by fiat. And he can’t wish away this budget deficit, either.
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How about we band together and try to take the lead on something for a change?
Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * One of the things that Gov. Pat Quinn gets right is his vocal support for alternative energy. And Illinois is at the center of wind power partly because of his work. The Environmental Law and Policy Center has produced a new study identifying over 100 Illinois companies with 15,000 employees active in the “wind power supply chain.” The group also estimates that 17 manufacturing jobs are created for every megawatt of power developed. That means 2,500 jobs for a 150 megawatt utility-scaled wind farm. * The state now has 25 wind farms. Chicago is home to 13 major wind power company corporate headquarters. Here are just a few…
Naperville’s BroadWind Energy headquarters recently got a writeup in the local paper…
Another business snagged from the cheeseheads. All those headquarters need lawyers, CPAs, caterers, programmers, insurance, public relations specialists, and on and on and on. * But there’s also a more direct benefit. A. Finkl & Sons is gearing up to supply the industry with high grade steel for turbines. Winergy Drive Systems, a division of Siemens, just opened its second turbine production facility in Elgin. The company employs 500 Illinoisans. There’s lots more. Read the report. * This is clearly a growth industry for Illinois, and the state needs to do even more. A new state law that allows school districts to cut deals with wind farm companies is starting to pay dividends for districts like Warrensburg-Latham, which is near Decatur…
* What about price? There is an argument that the price differential between wind and what we have now is just too great. But Illinois Wind Daily (yes, there is such a publication) makes a good point…
They’re low because of the recession. They’ll eventually go back up again, but this wind industry opportunity will be gone by then if we lay back now. * And as long as the market is out there, we need to not only stay in the game, but lead it and help pave the way. For instance, people tend to believe they “own” the sightlines from their property. That’s pretty silly, but it seems to be a natural inclination. I know I can feel the same way. But too often, a tiny handful of rural neighbors are allowed to stop or greatly slow down wind farm projects…
* What we also don’t need is for ComEd to continue dragging its feet. The company has so far prevented a bill from passing that would extend a provision in state law that only allows the company to apply only renewable energy sources from Illinois to its minimum alternative energy mandate. ComEd wants to import wind-generated power from out of state instead. Legislators need to be for Illinois jobs, not utility games. If this bill isn’t properly drafted, then the players need to come up with a new one. But soon. As with everything else, we’re in competition with other states and other countries in this industry. We have lots of coal here, and clean coal technology needs to be invested in as well. Environmental regulations are trending harshly against coal these days, so we can either do nothing and stick with the old technology and be left behind (once again), or kick it up ten notches and get out in front of the changes coming our way, whether we like it or not. [Hat Tip: Progress Illinois and Illinois Wind Daily.]
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Gov. Quinn plays hardball with the cheeseheads
Thursday, Nov 11, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Now, this is what I call aggressive business recruitment…
* The company is interested in moving here…
* The federal government has allocated $810 million to Wisconsin to build the high-speed train line. Gov. Quinn had this to say several days ago about the Wisconsin governor-elect’s campaign promise to halt the Milwaukee to Chicago project…
* Governor-elect Walker wants to use the money for roads instead, but Transportation Secretary LaHood has said they can’t, and it doesn’t look like Wisconsin will have a legal leg to stand on…
From Secretary LaHood’s letter…
Oof. * And despite potentially losing jobs and nearly a billion dollars in transportation money, the Wisconsin governor-elect is not backing down…
Yeah, well, that Wisconsin project would’ve created 5,500 construction jobs over the next three years. And then there are all those Talgo jobs. * And then there’s this…
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY: This just in…
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
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Americans for Prosperity promotes big lie and Edgar kicks Brady when he’s down
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Americans for Prosperity is jumping into the non-fray over seating Mark Kirk now with an online petition…
* Let’s go through this goofy petition piece by piece, shall we? 1) Kirk did not win a term to fill all of the remaining days of Obama’s unexpired term. A federal judge and the appellate court ruled that the state board of elections must certify the winner by November 24th. Under that late July federal judicial order, whoever won the special election would miss the first week of the lame duck session. 2) Alexi Giannoulias’ concession holds zero legal weight. 3) Unless Americans for Prosperity wants the Illinois State Board of Elections to violate probably two dozen state and federal laws, it cannot certify this election for Mark Kirk. The ballots are not all counted yet (see the Republican counties of Lake and McHenry for just two examples). Some military ballots may not have arrived in the counties yet. Does AFP want to deprive armed forces members of their right to vote? Just a few weeks ago, the Illinois Republican Party wanted to extend the time period to count those ballots and threatened to file a lawsuit. Now, it’s patriotic to not count them? Huh? I’m getting whiplash here. The official state canvass does not begin until next Wednesday, after the deadline for receiving and counting absentee ballots ends. This is a big state. That takes a while. 4) Unless Roland Burris decides to step down, he is most definitely a Senator until Mark Kirk is sworn in. The red herring of West Virginia and Delaware does not apply here. There is no vacancy here. That’s due to both Burris and the federal judicial decree. There is simply no seat for Mark Kirk to take. Even Tom Roeser kinda/sorta admitted error today. AFP has vast sums of cash and, presumably, staff. You’d think they would know better. But the Washington Examiner wants the Senate Republicans to use this non-issue as an excuse to filibuster everything next week. Thankfully, Drudge is too focused today on groped stewardesses to take notice, or Fox News would surely jump in with both Right feet. * Speaking of things we should ignore…
And…
If this was so important, you’d think maybe Edgar would’ve been out there campaigning for Brady. Maybe appearing in the ‘burbs and calming down moderate women. Then again, to my knowledge, Brady’s campaign never asked him to do that or cut a TV ad. That could’ve helped in the suburbs.
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Quinn cool on gaming, but will he change his mind?
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Gov. Pat Quinn talks about casino expansion and slots at tracks…
He’s right that we can’t gamble our way to prosperity. But I don’t think anyone is talking about making Illinois “the Las Vegas of the Midwest.” What they’re talking about is adding four new casinos, one in Lake County, one in Chicago, one in southern Cook and one in Danville, plus slots at tracks. Las Vegas has 1,701 casinos. We’d need to do a whole lot more expanding to get to that level. * Sen. Mike Jacobs makes sense…
Jacobs was referring to Iowa boats in his calculation, but it’s still true. And it seems a bit silly to me that the Quads have three boats and Chicago has zero. It also seems ludicrous that we’re allowing all those south suburban people to stream across the Indiana border to hand over their gambling losses to the Hoosiers. * So, will Quinn change his mind? Sen. Syverson also makes sense…
* From a press release…
Anyone else see the irony in that quote? * Look, gambling is not exactly popular. And I, for one, am not fully comfortable with the government being an active participant in a scam. And make no mistake, gambling is a scam (for everyone but my wife, that is, who always wins). They don’t build those fabulous casinos because they lose. It’s a tax on people who can’t do math. But it’s an almost purely voluntary tax. Nobody forces anybody to go to those casinos. I also don’t think adding four casinos and slots at tracks puts us on any sort of slippery slope to becoming the next Vegas. We’ve had boats for twenty years and there are only ten licenses, and it took years to find a home for that tenth license. Any expansion takes a huge effort. And expansion attempts fail about 99 percent of the time. It’s been a decade since the last one. * There are also real concerns that more gaming could mean less consumer purchasing here. And considering the lack of current retail demand in our economy, that question should be addressed. All in all, though, governing is inherently a balancing act. If new casinos do little real damage and help us balance the budget a bit without new taxes, then the scale tips in their direction. Some have real moral qualms. But Illinois is hardly Sodom and Gomorrah, and neither is Iowa, Missouri or Indiana, the three states we compete with. What we need is some sober, rational analysis and thought, not bizarre scare tactics by a petulant governor who demands that the General Assembly pass his tax increase before they do anything else. * Meanwhile, Comptroller-elect Judy Baar Topinka and Treasurer-elect Dan Rutherford have a warning for Gov. Quinn. No short-term borrowing unless they believe it’s a decent plan that the state can afford…
* Related…
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * A quote by Robert Gilligan, the executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois…
The legislation in question is a bill to provide for civil unions in Illinois. The Sun-Times editorialized on behalf of the bill today. * The Question: Regardless of how you feel about civil unions and gay marriage and even gay rights, is Mr. Gilligan correct when he says that civil unions and gay marriage are “practically the same,” or are there significant differences that ought to be recognized by the General Assembly? Explain. Again, let’s not debate the merits of the bill here. Let’s try to only stick to Gilligan’s statement.
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Bean needs a miracle, while Walsh vows to fend off attempts to “steal” election
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * The only thing that will save Congresswoman Melissa Bean is a miracle. Lake and McHenry counties won’t even start counting late-arriving absentee ballots until next Tuesday the 16th, which is the statutory deadline. From Lake County’s website…
This, by the way, is yet another reason why the state cannot certify Mark Kirk’s election. Anyway, back to Bean. With Cook County’s absentee results mostly in, Bean trails Republican Joe Walsh by 347 votes. That’s down from her 553-vote deficit late last week before Cook started counting late absentees, but it isn’t nearly enough. She picked up just three votes on Walsh yesterday in Cook, which has now stopped counting until next Tuesday as well. And keep in mind that Bean actually won suburban Cook County 54-43. She lost Lake County 50-47 and got stomped in McHenry 52-43. It’s likely that a higher percentage of Democrats voted by mail in those counties than voted on election day, partly because of the Democrats’ coordinated committee efforts. But that difference will have to be truly vast for Bean to catch up or even get close enough to realistically expect that a recount will make much of a difference…
The Cook “unaccounted for” line is a bit vague. The county mailed out 500 more absentee ballots than they’ve so far received back. Some will never be sent. The ones that are sent in will likely be postmarked after last Monday’s deadline. * In the meantime, Joe Walsh is heading to DC for freshman orientation. He appears to have earned that right. But, as usual, he went over the top in a message to supporters…
…Adding… From Bean’s campaign…
It suggests nothing of the sort since she won Cook County. * Related…
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Kankakee has a lesson for the city
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * I was born in Kankakee. Like many small cities, Kankakee installed parking meters downtown decades ago to generate revenue and prevent people from parking too long in front of stores. And, like many small cities, Kankakee’s downtown quickly went to pot. It didn’t take long before they had no more stores. Some Chicago businesses are now starting to freak out about what could happen to them…
That’s an excellent point. For shops which sell low-priced items like sweet rolls, who’s gonna pay through the nose to park? And get this response from the alderman…
Such empathy. * Parking meters alone didn’t destroy Kankakee’s downtown. Shoppers’ preferences shifted to malls. But the town’s oldtimers are still upset at the way those meters were installed, and that’s been maybe 40 years ago. So if Kankakee is any guide, then this is not an issue that will ever go away in Chicago. And the way the contract is written, those meters will continue to spread throughout the city. The company will have two ways to increase revenues, jack up parking rates or install new meters. It’s not gonna be pretty either way, and it’s going to be both ways. I don’t think many people care about the meters in the Loop. You can actually find street parking at times now. But the Loop is essential. People have to go there. They don’t necessarily have to stop in for quick roll at North Shore Bakery on Touhy, although in my view it’s an excellent place to find tasty treats. * I derided the study conducted last year which found that Chicago could’ve made more money if it had just raised parking rates itself without contracting it out to a private firm. The fatal flaw with the study, I wrote, was that aldermen would either never have been so foolish as to raise the rates and vastly expand meter placement themselves, or they would’ve been forced to instantly annul the ordinance once the public figured out what happened. But by going this privatization route and by spending pretty much all the company’s money up front, the city is now stuck. What it needs to do now is figure out how to get itself out of this contract or drastically modify it or little Kankakees are gonna sprout up all over the neighborhoods. And, take it from a Kankakee native, that’s not a good thing.
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Morning shorts
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Tribune Co. asks court to approve $43M in bonuses * Hiring remains slow even as economy picks up * Chicago Public Schools sees $700 mil. deficit next year * Estimate of corn crop lowered again * A third of Chicago-area homes underwater * Congressmen pay wives from campaign funds * Panel approves TIF for company’s 650-job expansion downtown * Shrink City Council committees, alderman says * Daley takes credit for fire department audit’s findings * Preckwinkle seeking help from Stroger administration * Why Preckwinkle plan to save $55 million a year might not work * Even Toni Preckwinkle has health insurance worries * Tinley Park enjoys budget surplus at mid-fiscal year * Aurora police union speaks out on budget cuts * Arlington Hts. plans tax increases * Stengren: 20 years on Arlington Hts. board is enough * Three vie to replace Morthland on R.I. County Board * Peoria council considers more budget cuts * Peoria Budget Deficit Reduced * Sangamon County board approves budget including raises, layoffs * Sangamon County Board Passes $95 Million Budget, Only Funding Coroner’s Office Six Months * SJ-R: Take cautious budget course * Champaign council begins work on long-term plan for city’s development * District to explore possible sales tax * Mike Neill will fill Carbondale City Council vacancy
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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Today’s edition of Capitol Fax (use all CAPS in password)
Wednesday, Nov 10, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller
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*** UPDATED x1 - Gingrich takes the bait *** Another phony “controversy” has the Interwebtubes in a tizzy
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Check out the right-leaning blogs today and you’ll see a huge number of posts that more than just suggest the Democrats are plotting to deny Republican Mark Kirk his rightful place in the US Senate. A representative sample…
Whew! That’s a lot of yucky bile. And that handful of posts barely skims the surface of the indignant blogtastic outrage. And, by the way, it’s all completely false. * All the hoo-ha is based on a fatally flawed AP brief…
* OK, first of all, way back in July the judge who ordered the special election gave the Illinois State Board of Elections until November 24th to certify the special. This schedule has been in place a very long time, before anyone knew that Kirk would be elected. * Secondly, the Illinois State Board of Elections actually plans to certify the election a day early, according to an official I just spoke with. They’re gonna do it on the 23rd, not the 24th. * Thirdly, the Senate is recessing its lame duck session during the entire week of the 23rd because of Thanksgiving. The Senate won’t restart the session until November 29th. * And fourthly - and most importantly - Secretary of State Jesse White’s office claims the AP misquoted them. What they said was they intend to process the paperwork immediately and will make sure that it gets into the hands of the proper DC authorities in plenty of time for the first day of the restarted lame duck session on the 29th. Between the 23rd and the 29th lies Thanksgiving, remember. Things can happen. That’s why they stressed they want to make extra special sure that Kirk is sworn in on or before the 29th. * So, to sum up, the schedule that was set way back in July is still on track. The State Board of Elections is actually pushing up the ordered date by a full day. The AP screwed up. The SoS will expedite matters. Mark Kirk will be sworn in by the time the Senate reconvenes on Monday, November 29th. Also, I’m not sure where Tom Roeser found that December 3rd date, but he’s way off. *** UPDATE *** And right on schedule, WLS allows Newt Gingrich to push this phony story into the bloodstream…
Sheesh.
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*** UPDATED x1 Madigan suggests another way *** A look ahead
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller *** UPDATE *** House Speaker Michael Madigan is throwing a bit of cold water on all this “mandate” talk by Gov. Quinn…
But then Madigan went on to lay out how the governor might improve his tax package…
And that means a one percentage point income tax hike won’t be nearly enough. * Unlike others, I believe that Gov. Pat Quinn has at least some right to claim a limited mandate from last Tuesday. How many people ran for governor this year promising to increase income taxes and still won? I think he’s probably the only one. That took guts and he prevailed. But the governor does not have the right to misstate the facts…
The “majority” voted for someone else, governor. Also, Bill Brady, Scott Lee Cohen and Lex Green all flatly opposed a tax hike. Total up their numbers and you get 51 percent. Words matter, governor. * Meanwhile, this free rides for seniors debacle is almost a perfect microcosm for how screwed up our politics have been in this state…
Madigan’s key word there is “eventually.” That could mean next year, it could mean in 20 years. The longer the program remains in place, however, the tougher it’s gonna be to kill or modify. Blagojevich used his amendatory veto powers to add the free rides provision. And even though people in both parties screamed bloody murder, the General Assembly didn’t dare knock down his AV. Seniors vote. And once you give them something, it’s politically dangerous to take it away. The House has tried to come up with a compromise in the past to only give the free rides to the “truly needy,” but it’s been stopped in the Senate and Gov. Pat Quinn has threatened to veto it. If they can reach a compromise in the coming months, then that could be a sign that the majority party is willing to stick their necks out on other items. * Whether they’ll go this far is doubtful…
Madigan was the chief co-sponsor of House Bill 1 last year, which would’ve increased the motor fuel tax by 8 cents per gallon. The money would’ve been used for capital projects, but the House Republicans refused to go along and pushed video gaming instead. Raising the fuel tax partially for mass transit would require one heck of a huge compromise with Downstate legislators, to say the least. * And we still don’t know for sure how the governor’s income tax increase will play out. Back in late July, Gov. Quinn seemed to say that he would veto anything other than his one percentage point tax hike… Quinn was attempting at the time to control the damage done by his budget director, who predicted to Bloomberg that the income tax would be hiked by two points in January, which would be double Quinn’s proposal. * But a one point hike that includes property tax relief doesn’t do a whole lot to balance the state’s budget. And without further cuts, many legislators will be reticent to vote for any tax increase…
Franks will never vote for a tax hike no matter how much the budget is cut. But he may not be too far off with that prediction of his. * There are those who are attempting to look at the local tea leaves to claim that the citizenry is opposed to higher taxes…
16 out of 37 is actually a pretty decent batting average, as far as recession-era tax hike referenda go. Hinsdale passed a sales tax increase, for example, as did Lake Zurich and even Macon County, where Bill Brady cleaned up. Even so, local sales and property tax referenda are different animals. I’m not sure there’s a direct comparison here.
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Congratulations are in order
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * First up, Scott Reeder, who is a proud papa of a new baby…
* Not trying to mix personal with business, but Illinois Review is due props of a different sort…
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * From Stateline.org…
National map of one-party state governments before election day… ![]() After election day… ![]() * The Question: Considering that the Republicans could not take over either legislative chamber, the governor’s mansion or the Supreme Court during the greatest Republican wave since 1994 (and the largest GOP state legislative wave since 1928), and considering that the GOP will be completely shut out of the redistricting process for the first time since our new state Constitution was adopted, are Statehouse Republicans doomed here? If not, why? If so, for how long? Explain. * Bonus Question: Either way, what should legislative Republicans do now?
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Ignoring the millionaire in the room
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Subscribers already know what I found last week after talking to Bill Brady’s campaign and others about where and why Brady lost to Gov. Pat Quinn. “Social issues” seems to be a big part of everyone’s post-election analysis, although I think I’ve pinpointed that aspect of it far more for subscribers. * For instance, here’s Kent Redfield…
That was part of it. * Sean Trende, a Senior Elections Analyst for RealClearPolitics, published a nifty little map. The counties in blue are those that Mark Kirk outperformed fellow Republican Bill Brady. The counties in red are those where Brady did better than Kirk… ![]() And his resulting take…
The DGA’s ads ran during the summer. They didn’t work. This is what happens when you write your analysis in DC and you only talk to fellow DC denizens who love to take credit for themselves. * Bernie thinks that creationism and Sheila Simon were in the mix…
* Progress Illinois thinks it was the ground game which got black and Latino voters to the polls…
62 percent of the Latino vote is pretty darned horrid. Rod Blagojevich took 83 percent of the Latino vote four years ago. * But Greg Hinz and I are the only two who pointed out the obvious…
It’s more than just random third candidates, however. Keep in mind that Cohen spent a fortune on this race. He wasn’t your usual third party also-ran. The Brady campaign told me a few months ago that they believed Cohen wouldn’t hurt them until he got more than 7 percent of the vote. I told them at the time that I thought they were wrong. They were. Let’s take a look at just two suburban counties. In DuPage County, Mark Kirk won by 57,338 votes and Brady won by 44,812. Third party candidates received 14,491 votes in the US Senate race, but third partiers and Scott Lee Cohen combined to score 20,188 in the governor’s race. Lake County saw the same thing. Kirk won by 36,247 and Brady won by 15,800. Third partiers got 9,451 US Senate votes and 15,148 gubernatorial votes. This actually happened all over suburbia. Lots of voters took a look at Quinn and decided they couldn’t be with him. But then they looked at Brady and, for various reasons (likely the social issues, subscribe for more detailed info on why) decided they couldn’t vote for him, either. So, they went with Cohen, who spent millions on TV, mail and radio. I told you weeks ago that when Cohen’s name was included in the polling, Quinn significantly closed the gap on Brady. For weeks, I refused to even run Rasmussen’s poll numbers until they included Cohen’s name in their surveys for that very reason. The Cohen factor was huge, yet it’s been almost wholly ignored out there. Scott Lee Cohen hated Pat Quinn. He got into the governor’s race thinking he could destroy Quinn. In the greatest of all 2010 ironies, Cohen ended up playing a major role in electing Quinn. I gotta wonder what he does for an encore. Any guesses?
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Between a Madigan and a tea party
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * I had heard this, but wasn’t able to confirm it last week, but Michael Sneed ran it…
* And my syndicated newspaper column takes a look at a particularly sticky wicket…
* Related…
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Morning Shorts
Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010 - Posted by Rich Miller * Luis Gutierrez: Sun-Times’s Rezko story ‘false‘ * Rezko gave Gutierrez a deal on town house * FBI interviewed Luis Gutierrez in 2008 about Rezko deal * Key witness in Blago trial charged with shoplifting * Retail good and bad: Vacancy drops, but so do rents * Weis: City crime is down for 22nd straight month * Burge sentencing postponed till Jan. * Daley hopes to find new schools chief quickly * Cook County tax rates generally stable * Cook County property-tax bills expected to be flat in Chicago, slightly up in suburbs * Daley’s last budget poised to sail through City Council * Budget Committee OKs Mayor Daley’s $6.15 billion budget for 2011 * Daley’s $6B City Budget Gets Preliminary OK * Standard & Poor’s lowers Chicago bonds * Audit discovers firefighters falsified mileage claims * Senator Durbin wants investigation into Metra pollution levels * Clearing the air on Metra pollution * Metra commuters may face health risks * City Council Committee Approves Acid Ordinance Supported by Attack Victims * Lee Enterprises reports continued growth in 4Q * Kurtz resigns from MCC board * Will County faces dilemma: Jobs or lower taxes? * Aurora police union hires firm to probe city budgets * Fourth candidate announces for Yorkville mayor * Moline may raise garbage fee, as well as city administrator’s pay * Quincy expects early retirement program to meet its $5.2 million goal * Adams County budget deficit remains just over $1 million * Macon County is poised to approve budget * Enos Park master plan would cost $45 million over 10-20 years * Sales tax boosters to reassess, maybe try again * SJ-R: Don’t give up on sales tax hike for schools * Ordinance will cost landlords $25 per unit in Collinsville * Mayoral hopefuls’ sprint under way * Coalition of black leaders backs Rep. Davis for mayor * Meeks rips black mayoral search process * Sweet: African American Chicago mayoral vote could be splintered * Emanuel Will Announce Run Next Week * Rahm Emanuel talks trash – in good way * Rahm to lay out plans for growing Chicago jobs * McQueary: Emanuel desperately needs a ‘beer summit’ * Mayoral Hopeful Pushes Old Idea: Abolishing City’s ‘Head Tax’ * Emanuel pitches phasing out head tax for businesses * Miguel Del Valle Refutes Report He’s Interested in CPS Job * Brown: Del Valle in mayoral race until very end * Washington: Next mayor needs arts agenda * Tax appeals commissioner won’t run for Chicago mayor * ‘Party’s over,’ Preckwinkle vows * State’s attorney investigating Batavia vote complaint
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